The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1887-12-10
SHOOTING A LEOPARD.
Exciting But Dangerous Sport in
India.
Running Down a Child-Eater and killing
Him at His Horrible Feast-Epi-
sodes of the Hunt A
Bloody Struggle.


'Iwas reading some shooting stories
of the far West. the other day." said
an old globe trotter to the Herald man,
land the sport they have out there can
not compare with what they have in
The far East There is not that ele-
ment of danger in it which conduces
much TO the enjoyment of real sport
Of course, you have the grizzly, ,
but, after all, he is an easy mark to
hit
There are two kinds of leopards in
India. One is the cheetah, the common
leopard of the plains of Hindostan.
This animal confines his attention
chiefly to small antelopes, barking deer
and jungle sheep. He is frequently
caught when young and tanned by the
native shikarris, who teach him to as
sist them in hunting and driving game
within shot of the guns of the sports
men, The other kind of Indian
leopard is the 1uckabugga,' a much
larger and fiercer animal, who, when
he has once tasted human blood.
becomes an ogre with a fright
full appetite for children. He is
chiefly found in the lower ranges of
the Himalayas and vast jungles of the
Terai.
''One summers evening 1 was out
with a couple of friends on shooting
excursion from Almora into Nepal.
Our tents were pitched on the banks of
the Kula Nuddee, a river which parts
the British possessions in the hills
from those of the Nepal Raj. We were
getting our guns ready to go out for
some black patridges for supper, when
the head man of the neighboring vii
lage came up to entreat our assistance
in killing leopard which had haunt
ed some neighboring village for many
months and had already carried off
twelve children. Traps and pitfalls
had been set for him in vain. He had
evaded all. A poor Zemenden had
just come into the village with woe
full story about his six-year-old boy
his only boy-who, when playing before
the door of his fathers hut in the dust
of the evening. had been seized by the
leopard and carried off before his
fathers eyes. The poor man followed
the animal and struck it repeatedly
with an iron hoe, but it held on and
vanished in the jungle. At daylight
he had hunted in the track with some
frierds. but found only a few bones
and some bloody hair. remains of his
child that a jackal was picking
at and vulture watching. Tho man
said he had watched the place every
night, but had never again seen the
leopard. The recital of the tragedy
excited us, and we pledged ourselves
not to leave the neighborhood till this
cruel ogre was destroyed. Ram Bex,
our head shikarri, was called and
ordered to make every inquiry as to his
whereabouts, and to offer a reward of
len rupees to any native who should
give such information as would give us
shot at him.
''lt would be endless to relate the
many false alarms we had. We sat
up all night in trees. with goat tied
below US as bait near the place where
The leopard had last been seen. One
night while sitting in a tree with gun
coolie, who held my weapons, fell
into doze. A friend in tree about
twenty yards of, with a goat below,
reused me by the discharge of his rifle.
NY coolie seized me by the arm and
shrieked: 'Sahib, Sahib, luckabugga
ayar (Master, master, the leopard is
hereD Where. where?' ! asked, seiz-
ing the rifle he held out TO me. There
said he, pointing to dark object mov-
ing through the trees about thirty
yards off. Bang-bang-went both
my barrels. followed Immediately by
unearthly yells. We descended
from our trees, and found a
large rough pariah dog shot through
both hind legs. He was yelling like n
fiend and swapping like crocodile. L
borrowed a large Ghoorka Kookrie
from our shikarri, and barring my
right arm, soon put an end to doggie's
squeals.
''One of my friends was very fat
and, as he found branch of tree
rather inconvenient, had a common
native charpoy (sort of bedsteaO
fixed upin n fork of tree. On this
he reclined with gun coolie and
large double-barrel gun loaded with
slugs. We were tired of the goat bait,
so we had got monkey, thinking a
chiid-eater would be more tempted by
its flesh. was posted in tree from
which could more readily watch the
approachcs to my friend post. About
midnight the moon went down and it
was almost dark. Half an hour later
the monkey chattered, SO l cooked
both barrels and watched the foot of
NY friends tree, The chattering in
creased. Then came blaze OF light
and loud report, followed by the
breaking of branches and perfect
babel of noises. had pine torch
with me and, clambering down from
the tree, lit it and rushed to the spot
There on his face lay my friend,